Mass Libya evacuations as Qaddafi digs in

The United States has sent a ferry and planes to Libya's capital, and Turkey has already rescued 5,000 nationals – making it the biggest evacuation in Turkish history.

By
Drew Hinshaw, Correspondent /
February 23, 2011

Alaguri/AP

(Read caption)
Hundreds of Turkish workers wait to be evacuated at Benghazi port, Libya, Tuesday, Feb. 22. Governments scrambled by air and sea to pick up their citizens stranded by Libya's unrest, with thousands of Turks crowding into a stadium to await evacuation and Egyptians gathering at the border to escape the chaos.

Turkey has already evacuated more than 5,000 nationals using only the airport in Tripoli, with further evacuations planned for the 25,000 Turks living in Libya – making it the biggest evacuation in Turkey's history, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said today, reported Bloomberg.

But Italy may face the most herculean task. Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini expects more than 300,000 Libyans to flee in the weeks to come, just as thousands of Tunisians fled to islands off Italy in the security vacuum that followed their revolution in January.